


Hear Me, See Me, Know Me

by imaginary_golux



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Insomnia, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 18:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17750957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: For the February Ficlet Challenge prompt "Character A can't sleep."Some nights, Maia can't sleep. That doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong.Beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	Hear Me, See Me, Know Me

Maia slips out of bed as quietly as he can - Csethiro needs her sleep, especially now in the eighth month of her pregnancy ( _my child_ , he thinks, astonished all over again as he is every time, _I am to have a child!_ ), but he cannot quite find it himself. The windowsill is broad and bare, and his nohecharei are used to his occasional bouts of sleeplessness by now; no one disturbs him as he sits down on the broad wooden ledge, back pressed against the sill, and watches the stars. In the silence, he presses his fingers together, one by one. _Cstheio Caireizhasan,_ he thinks, _hear me. Cstheio Caireizhasan, see me. Cstheio Caireizhasan, know me._ The stars twinkle on without answering, just as they ought.

“Maia?” Csethiro says, voice thick with sleep. “Art well?”

“I am,” Maia says, slipping off the windowsill and hastening back over to the side of the bed. Csethiro is barely half-awake, a pale shape in the dimness of the bedchamber. “Did I wake thee?”

“Thou art warm,” Csethiro says, patting the bed beside her. “Cushions do not radiate so well.”

Maia chuckles and slides between the sheets again, curling himself around her carefully. “‘Tis an honor to be thy hearth,” he murmurs, half joking, half so painfully honest he’s surprised the words don’t burn as they fall from his lips.

“Why art thou awake?” Csethiro asks, shifting closer and adjusting his arm so it does not press uncomfortably. “I did not think the last meeting of the Corazhas went ill.”

“It did not,” Maia says. “It is - truly, it is no single thing, for the bridge is well, and the Corazhas is well, and Lord Berenar is well, and _thou_ art well - it is only - sometimes the silence is a blessing.”

“Ah,” Csethiro says. “Yes.” Beneath Maia’s hand, the babe moves, turning within Csethiro’s womb. “Then I shall sleep, and thou shalt be silent, and we shall both be blessed,” she says softly, and presses a kiss to Maia’s cheek, dozing off again almost as soon as the words are spoken.

Maia holds her close, and listens to the silence, and for a little while, in the midst of the chaos and constant motion of the court, in this still quiet moment when no one needs anything of him but only to be held, warm and safe and silent - for a little while, he is at peace.


End file.
